Feast day recalls grace, foundation, reform of Church
(Vatican Radio) At the morning mass at Santa Marta, Pope Francis underlined the feast
of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, which the Church celebrates on Saturday.
Listen to this report:
The Pope
recalled how the feast day is also the feast of the city of Rome, the Church of Rome
and the Universal Church. The Lateran Basilica (or the Basilica of Saint John Lateran
in Rome) is the cathedral of Rome and “Mother of all the churches urbe et orbe”.
The Pope addressed the “three icons” in the day’s readings, which speak of
the Church. From the first reading of Ezekiel and in Psalm 45, the icon of the river
that runs from the Temple and in which the city of God rejoices is the image of the
grace that sustains and nurtures the life of the Church. In the second reading of
Saint Paul to the Corinthians, the icon of the rock, which is Jesus Christ, is the
foundation on which the Church is built.
The Gospel reading of the purification
of the Temple is the icon of the reform of the Church—“Ecclesia semper reformanda”—because
the members of the Church are always sinners and in need of conversion.
The
Pope concluded inviting the faithful to pray so that the Church may always let the
waters of grace flow, that it may be founded always on Christ and remain faithful,
and that its members allow themselves to be always converted by Jesus.